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Number of immigrants moving to Israel from US, France surges since October 7th

Major shift in Aliyah to Israel since October 7th, Knesset committee finds, with major drop in number of Russian immigrants and large increases from France and the United States.

By World Israel News Staff

The number of immigrants moving to Israel from France and the United States has surged dramatically since the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7th, according to data collected by the Knesset, while the number of immigrants making Aliyah from Russia has fallen.

On Sunday, the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs presented statistics on immigration patterns over the past year, noting an overall 19% decline in the total number of new immigrants moving to Israel since October 7th in comparison with the same time period the year before.

Since October 7th, a total of 30,763 petitions for immigration have been filed, the committee revealed.

The overall decline in the number of new immigrants was fueled primarily by the 45% drop in Russian immigration, with just 13,203 petitions for immigration filed in Russia from October 2023 to September 2024.

At the same time, however, some countries saw a surge in the number of requests to immigrate to Israel.

In France, for instance, the number of petitions for immigration soared by 342%, with 5,657 new files opened since October 7th, 2023.

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A smaller but still significant increase was recorded in the United States, where 6,367 new immigration requests were filed, marking a 60% increase.

MK Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu), chairman of the Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs Committee, blamed the decline in Russian immigration on a lack of bureaucratic resources to handle aliyah applications in a timely manner.

“The declared policy of the Minister of Aliyah and Integration has been to encourage immigration from Western countries and invest the funds there, neglecting the post-Soviet space,” said MK Forer.

“Despite this declared policy, most immigrants in the past year, since the outbreak of war, have come from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. It’s unacceptable that people wait for months for an immigration interview to Israel. A Jew living in St. Petersburg is no less important than a Jew living in Paris.”

Deputy Minister Avi Maoz (Noam) defended the government’s handling of Russian immigration, pointing to reforms to “reduce the long waiting times for immigration to Israel.”

“We’ve implemented significant digitization to ease the immigration process,” Maoz continued. “We are actively reaching out to those waiting in the post-Soviet space to expedite their appointments but are facing refusals due to the ongoing war in Israel.”